Expert Tax Accountants in Whitehorse

CRA online filing for 2025 returns opened on 23 February 2026 and stays open until 29 January 2027. You can prepare a return before the service opens, but it cannot be transmitted, and slips such as T4s and T5s often arrive only in late February. Filing early makes sense if you expect a refund. If you expect a balance owing, you can still file early and pay by 30 April 2026.

As the rules stand for the 2025 tax year filed in 2026, the late-filing penalty is 5% of the balance owing plus 1% of that balance for each full month the return is late, to a maximum of 12 months, so 17% at worst. It rises to 10% plus 2% per month for up to 20 months, a 50% maximum, but only where the CRA formally demanded the return and had already charged a late-filing penalty for any of the three preceding tax years. Interest compounds daily.

Multiply the assessed value of the property by the tax rate for its property class. Assessment is set by a provincial assessment authority on its own cycle and increases are often phased in, so the value lags the market. The rate is set each year by the municipality out of its budget, with an education portion added by the province. Both figures appear on your notice, which is why identical homes in different municipalities carry different bills.

Each municipality sets its own due dates, so they differ from city to city and no national rule applies. Most issue an interim bill early in the year and a final bill once the budget and rates are set, with each bill split into instalments. Many municipalities also offer monthly pre-authorised payment plans. Late amounts attract penalty and interest charged monthly on the balance, so confirm the dates printed on your own bill.

Several NETFILE certified programs are free to use for straightforward returns, and the CRA publishes the certified list each filing season. If your income is modest and your return is simple, a free volunteer tax clinic can prepare and file it for you. Some people also receive a CRA invitation to file through a simplified phone or digital service. Free tools cover most employment and pension returns; self-employment, rental or foreign income usually needs more.

Taxable income is what is left after you total the income the tax rules include and subtract the deductions you are allowed. Employment and self-employment earnings, most pensions, EI and CPP benefits, interest, dividends, rental profit, the taxable portion of capital gains, RRSP and RRIF withdrawals and most taxable benefits from work all go into the total. Tax is then calculated on that figure and reduced by non-refundable credits such as the basic personal amount.

The route depends on the structure. A sole proprietor or partner reports business income on Form T2125 and files it with the personal T1 return; for the 2025 year the self-employed filing deadline was 15 June 2026, while any balance owing was due 30 April 2026. An incorporated business files a separate T2 corporate return for each fiscal year, due six months after that year end, on top of whatever the owner reports personally.

Canada uses a basic personal amount rather than an exemption. For 2026 it is $16,452, tapering to $14,829 as net income runs from $181,440 to $258,482. It works as a non-refundable credit, so income up to that level attracts no federal tax, and each province sets its own equivalent amount. Separately, CPP contributions for 2026 ignore the first $3,500 of pensionable earnings; that basic exemption belongs to payroll, not to income tax.

Paper T1 returns go to the CRA tax centre that serves your province or territory, and the correct address is on the CRA page for mailing a paper return. Check it each filing season, because centres and addresses change. Write your social insurance number on the package and keep a copy of everything you send. Filing online is faster and easier to track: a refund on an online return usually takes about two weeks.

A tip the customer chooses to leave is not payment for the meal, so no GST or HST applies to it. A service charge the business adds to the bill is different: it forms part of the price of what was supplied and is taxed like the rest of the bill. Set your point-of-sale system so voluntary tips sit outside the taxable sale, otherwise you remit tax you never actually collected.

Basic groceries are zero-rated for GST/HST, so no federal or harmonised tax is charged on bread, milk, produce, meat and similar staples. Snack foods, candy, carbonated drinks and prepared meals are excluded and taxable. On the provincial side, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba exempt food for human consumption from PST and RST, so groceries carry no provincial retail sales tax either. Quebec's QST follows the federal zero-rating for basic groceries.

GIS is not taxed, but it does have to be reported. The amount appears on the Old Age Security slip Service Canada sends you, is entered on your return as a net federal supplement, then deducted again so it never forms part of taxable income. It still counts in the income test for GIS itself and for other income-tested benefits, so filing every year on time matters: payments can be interrupted when a return is late.